Search smh:

Search in:

It is the end: killer Dupas loses appeal

Belinda Merhab

After a 15-year battle to bring her murderer to justice, Mersina Halvagis can finally rest in peace.

Although it took two Victorian Supreme Court jury trials and two Court of Appeal hearings, justice was served at long last on Friday as serial killer Peter Norris Dupas lost an appeal against his second conviction for her murder.

Ms Halvagis was brutally stabbed to death as she tended to her grandmother's grave at Fawkner cemetery, in Melbourne's north, in 1997.

This was the second time Dupas had appealed against his conviction for murdering the 25-year-old.

Advertisement

"It is the end," Mersina's father, George Halvagis, told reporters outside the Court of Appeal on Friday.

"We've been through so much."

Her youngest brother, Bill, said the family and Mersina could finally rest in peace knowing the court battle was over.

"Finally, Mersina can lay to rest," he said.

"We can get on with our lives and remember her, and move on and cherish the moments we had with her.

"It's about time justice was served."

Dupas, 59, is serving three life sentences for the murders of Ms Halvagis, Nicole Patterson and Margaret Maher.

He has four convictions for rape and remains a suspect in the murders of several other women.

Dupas was granted leave to appeal after arguing that the trial judge, Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth, erred regarding the reliability of identification evidence when determining its admissibility.

He also argued that the verdict was unsafe and unsatisfactory because it was based on unreliable evidence provided by lawyer Andrew Fraser, who shared a unit with Dupas at Port Phillip Prison while jailed on drug charges.

Mr Fraser said Dupas performed a mime of his attack on Ms Halvagis and told him he did not leave any forensic evidence at Fawkner.

He said Dupas had also appeared shaken when a Greek inmate accused him of Ms Halvagis's murder, saying "How does that c*** know I did it?", and stroked a homemade knife found in the prison garden, while saying "Mersina".

Chief Justice Marilyn Warren said two judges were added to the bench to hear the appeal case.

In a 125-page judgment, Chief Justice Warren, President Chris Maxwell and Justices Robert Redlich, Geoffrey Nettle and Bernard Bongiorno found that Justice Hollingworth had not erred in allowing the identification evidence of three witnesses who saw Dupas at the cemetery on the day of the murder.

"Her Honour did consider the asserted infirmities of the identification evidence of each witness," the court said.

"The trial judge took account of the weight that could properly be assigned to that evidence and concluded that there was no danger that it would be given greater weight or that it would not be addressed by appropriate directions (to the jury).

"We agree with Her Honour's conclusions."

They found the jury had been given appropriate directions about the potential unreliability of Mr Fraser's evidence and were still entitled to accept it.